Social experiment no. N

Find a recent picture of yourself.


Settle for something which is decent enough to be cropped and makes you feel good about yourself. (even if its taken in a saree)


Go ahead. Put it up.


Wait for few hours for people to discover it on their news feed.


Get bombarded by the most amusing 'what's the deal', 'are you getting hitched' questions, asked in the most *subtle* manner.


Have fun ROFLing, playing along, and getting slightly annoyed! :D


~nightflier

getting to choose your reality/fiction

So I was reading Upasna's post about stories, making connections and it got me thinking. Really thinking. How in life we don't get to choose stuff, and have to randomly connect dots based on instincts or beliefs. Most of the times, after everything has happened. The end is always unpredictable, owing to all the uncertainties involved.


Writing stories on the other hand, is different. It gives you a chance to cheat, to know/change the ending and then connect the dots. Linger through the (forbidden?) forests as long as you want. Stop at those mountain peaks, those waterfalls, the random trees. There is no exact need to be in a hurry or to not enjoy a moment.


I have always wanted to look at life, in general, from a distant angle. From a suspended reality perspective. Like as in a limbo. How pointless would everything look from there. Of course, Aai would think otherwise and tell me to get myself checked or something. (sometimes we have these brief discussions when she chides, that all this education and these books have in a way made me more complicated :D Imagine telling this to a person who is constantly trying to simplify things!!!!)


I like Calvin (CLICK THE LINK!). First because he has Hobbes. And second because he always seems to have such a solid grip on life (not in an over bearing, control freak way but his in the moment ways). Specially with his wit, innocence and morbid excitement.


~nightflier


P.S. Cheating in life has altogether different connotations and involves lots of moral dilemmas. Don't even let me get started on that! ;-)
P.P.S. I know its bill watterson, who should really be thanked for Calvin. :-)

the drought

Have got *literally* nothing to say.


Must. Not. Read. Philosophy.
Must. Read. Watch. Fun. Stuff.
[putting blames is so much easier once you have decided!]


Anywho, I watched this amazingly fantastic grown up animation movie called Rango. Johnny Depp is one smooth actor. Such skill to get into character and make it (a lizard, eww, in this case) lovable. Absolutely. Worth. Must. Watch.


~nightflier

My world cup story

So when I hear my father's generation raving about *those special times* I have always wanted to feel how it must have felt. To be part of *that* 

I think today I got my story. The story of my (26 years) life.

Now on, everyone born after 2nd april, 2011 will get to hear this story in moments of happiness and misery, confidence and doubt, hope and giving up. No but I don't think I will wait for any such morally appropriate moments. I will anyway tell my world cup story. I will gloat and then bloat.
India won the Cricket World Cup today. WHEEEEEEEEE!


I think I will start the story with Sachin. No I think I will start with the young boys, who held their nerves. Chuck. I will start with Sachin only.
The most important thing is I will use these anecdotes for as long as I live now. phhhbttt!


I will end my excitement with what sidin said on Twitter - 'Staying positive is so tiring. Never doubted. Never doubted.'


Congratulations everyone!


~nightflier


P.S. due to non availability of internet connection delay in publishing my excitement. But guess it can never be too late in this case ;)

Silence must be a vector

He said to her : nice, kind, beautiful, positive, negative, passionate, resentful, angry, spiteful. I think I understand words most of the times. The silence.. that's the problem.

She thought for a while and replied : May be you were not born for dimensions. :)

He said : hmm. I was always bad with vectors. :)

~nightflier

P.S. The day's been rather dull and boring. Plus the allergy and cold are doing the rounds. UGH! 

This list did make me smile. If its not to-do lists, I am not much into them. But its always great to get a perspective. I am doing a 27 on 30 on that list! Guess I would grow up to be a fulfilled woman! :D

I belong to the cricketing nation!

I never call myself a cricket fan. Never have I understood the game in its full technicalities. I don't remember names of players except if I have a crush on them. I don't even care about the turn or the dead-ness of the pitch.

I lived outside India for 2 years sans cricket. I tried my hand at a lot of sports I did not fully understand or know before. We would sometimes watch the NBA or super bowl with friends. People of different nationalities trying to make home out of another country by accepting its culture. (I don't consider such people being show offs, I think trying to adapt to a countries' sports is very open minded) Something always felt amiss. Not in terms of differences but the feeling of belonging.

Now I have come back and trying to find my place here. I miss life back there. I sometimes feel like living in a cultural exile. You know trying to be at two places at the same time ?

Having been exposed to cricket from a very early age, thanks to overenthusiastic father and brother, who can watch any cricket game, old or live, and give you gyaan; not knowing cricket as I stated earlier, seems ridiculous. Moreover I did not turn out to be a devout India (or any team) supporter, in terms of knowledge, stats or talk. I have always felt left out somehow.

Today as the big India-Australia game unfolded, the three of us, I, pregnant friend and the baby (he/she) in her belly, shifted the entire house in front of the television set. Lunch happened way before 2.30 pm as we wanted to finish every related chore and be at peace while watching the match. Both of us on previous occasions have generously cursed the length of the game FYI. Today was going to be different, may be. We talked cricket, we discussed powerplays, the team selection, technicalities, statistics, the pitch, the crowd. In short we had opinion about every move of the Indian team. Unknowingly we were the very epitome of cricket fan-dom the country is proud of and famous for.

When things were not looking so bright, after the Gambhir run out, I even indulged in some small talk with the tv. With chants of 'Steady Bhuvan. Steady' and 'I will not move to pee until India reaches 200' the match progressed. In some other world the twitter time line was bursting with emotions. Every second of it. I would hastily snatch away the laptop from the friend who was working on a remote desktop and see how people were coping with the pressure.

And then the realization dawned. Even though I know not a single player's bio or the real stuff, the very obligation to have an opinion about cricket, without being asked for, makes me belong. To the cricketing nation. Sachin Tendulkar must be the very basic first reason. So much that, I indulge in bargains with the cricket god, fix matches sitting at home by offering the players a share of my awesome lauki (kaddu/doodhi) paratha, swear and curse (inside my head), gasp, do a little jig and duck when the watchman notices me, ...

The brother calls exactly 5 seconds after Yuvraj has hit a boundary. We congratulate each other (quite the filmy ones) and cut the call. A part of the self imposed (?) cultural exile seems to loosen itself. I feel like finding a connecting thread.

~nightflier

Flooding 101

All the comments, observations in this post are all out of jest. I mean no offense to anyone actually experiencing these calamities in the nature's fury sense.


So I was all ready to leave house at 6 in the morning for a short trip to Mumbai. The brother out of a sudden burst of sisterly love, got ready to leave me to the bus stop. In a feat of machismo he did something to the wash basin valve and the pipe broke. YES! there he was standing with the valve handle in his hand and two separate pipes hanging in mid air, oozing forceful bouts of water. Within minutes we were standing in a pool of water.
Here's a few things you should try or avoid.


* STOP laughing hysterically. And if you can't control yourself, go smother yourself. [person in picture here is yours truly. I still cannot get that scene out of my head and stop laughing]


* Run for all the things lying on the floor. Common Sense. [We did not. And house is full of wet chatais, chappals, clothes bag etc]


* Try to remember all that fluid mechanics (FM) related physics. Try applying the knowledge to the situation. And if you still cannot figure out the piping structure of the house, open random taps elsewhere and let water flow. The objective here is to try to relieve the broken pipe of water pressure. [A civil engineer and an electrical engineer could not figure this out! I am sure it has got nothing to do with those bunked FM classes]


* Knock on neighbors' door even if its 6 am on a Friday morning. Even if they curse you seeing your grinning face while explaining the situation, ask for their help. [dear neighbor was very reluctant to hand over the terrace keys to me, saying people will start needing water in half an hour, until I told him how they might have to visit our house to get/use all the tank water puddled inside our house]

image courtesy Google

* Call up that plumber whom you befriended on his last visit to the household. And rejoice when the saint like figure with a halo, arrives equipped with all the war material at 6.30 am. [Seriously if it wasn't for the god like plumber who agreed to visit us, our house would have resembled a scene from waterworld] 


* While the plumber is fixing the issue, don't just stand there and imagine various swimming techniques. Start gathering old cloths and start wiping the floor. Great wrist and arm strength comes handy while wringing those cloths. Otherwise life can be a bit difficult. [I almost got out 2 buckets full of water using this technique in half an hour despite blessed with skinny arms.]


* Leave the house relieved once the problem has been fixed and catastrophe has been avoided. Pray to god that nothing disastrous happens when you are away.


~nightflier